On 17th September, Surrey's Epsom Fire Station opened its doors, and showed off some Surrey fire & rescue appliances, and also many excellent fire displays which were very entertaining. Below are photos of some of the appliances at the show, as well as from the fire displays. You can see pictures of all the appliances from the show on the Surrey Fire & Rescue page in the Other Brigades section.

Both of Epsom's Volvo FLH6.14 / Saxon water tender ladders were on display at the show. 257 (KR02 CLZ) is seen in the rear yard.

Two Dennis Rapier / JDC appliances were also at the show, offering children's rides for a pound.

This Vauxhall Astra fire car was displayed at the show. An identical car is based at Epsom (seen on the right), and this car is from the Reigate brigade headquarters.

One of the displays at the show was the tower fire. Here is the tower with smoke billowing out.

The firefighters retrieve the 13.5m ladder from the appliance.

 
The fire crew extends the ladder, and a firefighter climbs up wearing BA to fight the fire.

Three jets were used in the demonstration, one for each window. The firefighter can be seen on the top floor.

Always popular at open days is the chip pan fire display. Here the firefighters prepare the chip pan.

The demonstration made some fantastic flames. The display was certainly the best I have ever seen.

The final display here was the road traffic accident rescue display. Here is the victim, an old Volkswagen Polo.

The firemen start work by stabilising the car and removing windows.

The firefighters begin to cut the pillars of the car.

The door is off!

The final cut is made....

...and the roof is lifted away.

To allow more space to treat the victim, a hydraulic ram is used to bend the front end of the car forward.

The patient is free, and the car is left in a wreck.

Not actually from the show, but I thought some visitors would be interested. Just across the road from the fire station are both ambulance and police stations. Here is a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter / UV Modular emergency ambulance.

All photos ©Copyright 2005 Thomas Jefferson.